Into the Trees: A Goth Video Roundup

All day today, we’re playing celebrating Robert Smith’s (April 21) by playing your favorite songs by The Cure and other goth favorites. As a genre and a style, “goth” is pretty easy to stereotype (see The Damned’s “Grimly Fiendish” for a particularly campy version), but the truth is its influence spreads far and wide. Goth is a thread that connects industrial bands like Einstürzende Neubauten to romantic new wavers like Gene Loves Jezebel (though you’d never find their fans in the same room!) through all manner of dark if not mopey music. Gathered here you’ll find indisputable Goth pioneers like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and The Banshees and Joy Division mixed with offshoots like The Cramps and Pixies along with modern practitioners like The Horrors, Zola Jesus and The Soft Moon. So spike up your hair, smear on some eye makeup, throw on that pirate shirt you’ve kept in your basement and come with us… in to the trees…